As it becomes dark and cold, keen language-lovers among Babel’s readers may fancy some extra linguistic sustenance. So we thought we would introduce you to one of the many MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses - that allow you to learn more about languages and linguistics.

Miracles of Human Language: an Introduction to Linguistics is a free course that introduces students to the building blocks of language – sounds, words and sentences – and field work, with participants collecting and analysing their own linguistic data in order to explore their own chosen feature of language.

The course takes place over six weeks, beginning on October 26, with weekly video lectures, quizzes and a final exam. It is run by Professor Marc van Oostendorp of Leiden University, who specialises in the study of phonological microvariation – the small differences in sound systems between varieties of the same language, such as dialects. Both he and other leading linguists will provide participants with a grounding in the daily realities of linguistics - and everything they need to pass their final exam and gain their certificate!

You can find out more about Miracles of Human Language at the MOOC's website. You can also join the Miracles of Human Language Facebook group to discuss the course with other participants.

Do get in touch with Babel through Facebook and Twitter to let us know how you get on with the course or about other language and linguistics MOOCs that you have enjoyed. And best of luck with your studies!

Babel No19 – on your doormat soon! The second Babel of 2017 is nearly with us!Babel No19 has a theme of the language of drama. In particular, we look at the life and work of the novelist Anthony Burgess – Benet Vincent investigates the Nadsat teen argot of A Clockwork Orange, while Jim Clarke takes… more

Babel back issues Want to catch up with Babels you have missed, or treat a friend to a particular issue covering their favourite linguist or topic on languages?You can now purchase all Babel back issues through our Buy Back Issues page - just add the ones you fancy to your basket, go to the… more

Babel No18 – beaming down early February!The first Babel of 2017 is now out!Babel No18's cover story features Klingons, hobbits and attempts to bring nations together through language. Deak Kirkham investigates the curious case of conlangs, discussing the different reasons why language creators… more

Babel No17 is on its way!Our new issue will be with subscribers shortly, featuring a cover story by Babel's very own Jane Lugea about Frog, Where Are You?, a children’s book about the search for a frog that has inspired research into various areas of linguistics. The new issue also features the… more

Write for Babel!Babel is seeking linguists to provide articles on a range of linguistic topics for our upcoming issues. We publish articles on all areas of lingusitics - the only requirement is that articles make linguistic research accessible and interesting for specialist and non-specialist… more

New Babel subscriptions and back issuesWe are pleased to announce changes to how Babel subscriptions work. We hope that these changes will make subscribing to Babel easier, and will also make it easier to purchase particular back issues. New issues will continue to be published in February, May,… more

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David Crystal Presents the 2016 Babel Lecture Babel is pleased to announce that our second annual lecture will be given by David Crystal. The lecture will take place on the 13th May, 2016 in the beautiful surroundings of St Paul's Hall at the University of Huddersfield. David Crystal is a… more

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Babel at Language Show Live 2015 Babel has just returned from Language Show Live, an international languages event held at the Olympia London between 16th-18th October. The show is Europe's biggest annual event for language enthusiasts, with 10,000 attendees visiting this year's 160 different… more

Babel 13 out soon!The final issue of 2015 is out soon! We are putting the finishing touches to Babel 13, which will be on its way to our subscribers in early November.Pride of place in our new issue goes to our 2015 Young Writers' Competition winners, Jonathan Lahdo and Ollie Sayeed. Jonathan, the… more

Miracles of Human Language MOOCAs it becomes dark and cold, keen language-lovers among Babel’s readers may fancy some extra linguistic sustenance. So we thought we would introduce you to one of the many MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses - that allow you to learn more about languages and… more

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Issue 11 is on its way! The second instalment of Babel 2015 will soon be on its way to print and digital subscribers, and our latest issue is full to the brim with stimulating articles taking linguistics beyond the page, look out for an exciting opportunity we have created for our young readers! -… more

Babel and the UK Linguistics Olympiad Babel is pleased to be working alongside the UK Linguistics Olympiad, which runs language puzzle competitions for school and college pupils of all ages. If you are a teacher, lecturer or simply a language enthusiast who would like to get involved or run a… more

First things first, what is a MOOC we hear you ask... Well, ‘MOOC’ stands for Massive Open Online Course and Leiden University is launching its first linguistics course of this kind on March 30th 2015. The course is titled ‘Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics’, lasts five… more

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Stephen Fry on Babel Those of you who follow us on Twitter may have noticed a recent tweet about Babel from none other than Stephen Fry. Stephen very kindly endorsed the magazine, suggesting that language lovers ought to be "blown away" by it! We're very grateful to Stephen for his kind words. To… more

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Babel Issue 6 The first Babel of 2014 is now out! Issue 6 is arriving on subscribers' doormats right now, and is also the first issue of Babel to be released in a digital format that you can read on your computer or mobile phone – a brand new format for the new year. If you have not yet subscribed… more

Coming up in the next issue of Babel we have an interview with the magazine's Linguistic Consultant, Prof. David Crystal. This accompanies an exclusive extract from his new book, Wordsmiths and Warriors, the product of David and his wife Hilary's road trip around Britain in search of sites… more

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Last Friday evening Babel's co-editor and co-founder (alongside Prof Lesley Jeffries), gave his inaugural lecture as professor of English Language and Linguistics on a topic close to his heart. Prof Dan McIntyre's research - from corpus linguistics to cognitive stylistics - has always leaned toward… more

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We've launched our new website. Featuring news, information and links to our social media, the site is designed to enhance your enjoyment of reading Babel Magazine. We hope you enjoy it! The Babel Magazine Team more

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